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As early as 1995, Hollywood paid homage to the growing popularity of UFC (which was only 2 years in existence then) through the techno-thriller movie Virtuosity starring Denzell Washington and Russell Crowe. In one scene, a familiar mixed-martial arts cage is shown filled with fighters in what looked like an MMA free-for-all sort of competition. The scene even featured MMA legend Ken Shamrock in a cameo appearance.
The film's portrayal of a "futuristic" MMA competition as somewhat of a spectator sport for the morally depraved was done so probably to reinforce the theme of the fictional movie which was set in a scientifically advanced yet ethically decadent society. A regular MMA fan will quickly dismiss the MMA rumble scene as just being a thing for the movies and something that isn't real.
Or is it?
The possibility of a MMA rumble matches may not be as remote as you think. As the MMA rumble scene in the movie most likely took inspiration from professional wrestling, so would the idea of an MMA tag team match. The only difference between the two would be that MMA tag team competition already is a reality.
An MMA tag team match involves four mixed-martial artists, two for each team. They are weighed as a team for a certain limit and not individually. Just like in tag team professional wrestling, one fighter from each team mix it up in the ring while the other team member stays on their corner, making sure to be within the reach of the turnbuckle (or the padded post of an MMA cage). Fighters take turns fighting inside the ring by tapping their team mate on any part of their body.
Despite the claim of Warrior Xtreme Cagefighting of holding the first MMA tag team match on July 2010, MMA competition has been around for nearly a decade with the first officially recorded tag team MMA bout held in November 2002 during the inaugural ZST (pronounced zest) event in Tokyo, Japan.
The tag team match for the ZST event consisted only of one 15-minute round, single tapout/K.O. elimination system. Tags were supposed to be made above the top rope (some tags below the top rope were allowed for this particular match). Fighting was stopped after tags and was resumed in the middle of the ring after the switch of the fighters was made.
There appeared to be no limit to the tags that can be made in the initial ZST tag team match and when a fighter was defeated via K.O. or submission, he must leave the match but the fight resumes with the remaining fighter who then essentially was at a 1 to 2 disadvantage. The fight ended when a team had no more fighters. Had the fight reached the 15-minute time limit, the team with more fighters will be deemed the winner.
The fighting rules of the first ZST tag team match seem to have been adapted from the Rings Japan MMA competition rules. Only open palm strikes to the head were allowed and fighters were not allowed to use closed guards. ZST has since held more tag team MMA competitions, albeit very rarely.
Throughout the years, the rules for MMA matches remained vague as no other MMA organization have shown any interest in unifying the rules for MMA tag team matches, let alone show any interest in holding tag team matches at all.
The Warrior Xtreme Cagefighting for instance have taken MMA tag team matches from the ring to the cage, adapted and modified rules from ZST and created their own point system for matches. A page was even taken from professional wrestling where a team is allowed five seconds to "complete" the tag. This essentially gives a particular team the luxury of five seconds to gang up on a single fighter in their corner, reminiscent of pro wrestling bad guys who gang upon a star pro wrestler in their corner to rile up the crowd.
It is hard to say whether or not the concept of MMA tag team competition is catching on. Established MMA organizations haven't shown any interest in holding any MMA tag team event in the near future as of yet nor have they expressed any plans of considering the holding of such matches.
Experts on the other hand believe that tag team MMA matches completely confounds the dynamics of a good MMA fight, much like turning boxing into tag team boxing. One MMA legend when asked of his take on tag team MMA simply replied, "I'd like to ask those who thought it up what the f*%k were they thinking?"
Several videos of MMA tag team matches can be seen on the internet. Viewer comments on the videos vary from expressing incredulity to some feeling sorry for the fighters as the laughter of the crowd watching the match was caught in the video as well. Most of the comments apparently came from purist MMA fans who found it hard to accept the premise of a tag team MMA match, calling it stupid and a downright dumb idea.
Despite being around for nearly ten years, MMA tag team competition remains to be perhaps one of the most obscure forms of mixed-martial art matches today. It may be as real as conventional MMA competitions but it still is relatively unknown to most MMA followers. Longtime and hardcore MMA fans do discuss the subject of MMA tag team matches on internet forums, but there hardly is a discussion board on the internet that shows any enthusiasm on the subject.
Fans of MMA tag team competition do exist but they are greatly outnumbered by MMA fans who hate, choose to ignore or simply do not know about the existence of tag team MMA. MMA superstars do occasionally join MMA tag team competitions like UFC veteran Rich Clementi and Japanese MMA star Hayato Sakurai but their appearances on the MMA tag team matches are doing very little warm more fans to the concept.
So what does the future hold for tag team MMA?
Given its current status with MMA fans and its lack of marketability, the future doesn't seem to bode well for tag team MMA. However, the UFC and the sport of MMA itself weren't given much of a chance in the past and yet they have endured and are now widely accepted. Will tag team MMA then have a similar future? Only time will tell.
The film's portrayal of a "futuristic" MMA competition as somewhat of a spectator sport for the morally depraved was done so probably to reinforce the theme of the fictional movie which was set in a scientifically advanced yet ethically decadent society. A regular MMA fan will quickly dismiss the MMA rumble scene as just being a thing for the movies and something that isn't real.
Or is it?
The possibility of a MMA rumble matches may not be as remote as you think. As the MMA rumble scene in the movie most likely took inspiration from professional wrestling, so would the idea of an MMA tag team match. The only difference between the two would be that MMA tag team competition already is a reality.
An MMA tag team match involves four mixed-martial artists, two for each team. They are weighed as a team for a certain limit and not individually. Just like in tag team professional wrestling, one fighter from each team mix it up in the ring while the other team member stays on their corner, making sure to be within the reach of the turnbuckle (or the padded post of an MMA cage). Fighters take turns fighting inside the ring by tapping their team mate on any part of their body.
Despite the claim of Warrior Xtreme Cagefighting of holding the first MMA tag team match on July 2010, MMA competition has been around for nearly a decade with the first officially recorded tag team MMA bout held in November 2002 during the inaugural ZST (pronounced zest) event in Tokyo, Japan.
The tag team match for the ZST event consisted only of one 15-minute round, single tapout/K.O. elimination system. Tags were supposed to be made above the top rope (some tags below the top rope were allowed for this particular match). Fighting was stopped after tags and was resumed in the middle of the ring after the switch of the fighters was made.
There appeared to be no limit to the tags that can be made in the initial ZST tag team match and when a fighter was defeated via K.O. or submission, he must leave the match but the fight resumes with the remaining fighter who then essentially was at a 1 to 2 disadvantage. The fight ended when a team had no more fighters. Had the fight reached the 15-minute time limit, the team with more fighters will be deemed the winner.
The fighting rules of the first ZST tag team match seem to have been adapted from the Rings Japan MMA competition rules. Only open palm strikes to the head were allowed and fighters were not allowed to use closed guards. ZST has since held more tag team MMA competitions, albeit very rarely.
Throughout the years, the rules for MMA matches remained vague as no other MMA organization have shown any interest in unifying the rules for MMA tag team matches, let alone show any interest in holding tag team matches at all.
The Warrior Xtreme Cagefighting for instance have taken MMA tag team matches from the ring to the cage, adapted and modified rules from ZST and created their own point system for matches. A page was even taken from professional wrestling where a team is allowed five seconds to "complete" the tag. This essentially gives a particular team the luxury of five seconds to gang up on a single fighter in their corner, reminiscent of pro wrestling bad guys who gang upon a star pro wrestler in their corner to rile up the crowd.
It is hard to say whether or not the concept of MMA tag team competition is catching on. Established MMA organizations haven't shown any interest in holding any MMA tag team event in the near future as of yet nor have they expressed any plans of considering the holding of such matches.
Experts on the other hand believe that tag team MMA matches completely confounds the dynamics of a good MMA fight, much like turning boxing into tag team boxing. One MMA legend when asked of his take on tag team MMA simply replied, "I'd like to ask those who thought it up what the f*%k were they thinking?"
Several videos of MMA tag team matches can be seen on the internet. Viewer comments on the videos vary from expressing incredulity to some feeling sorry for the fighters as the laughter of the crowd watching the match was caught in the video as well. Most of the comments apparently came from purist MMA fans who found it hard to accept the premise of a tag team MMA match, calling it stupid and a downright dumb idea.
Despite being around for nearly ten years, MMA tag team competition remains to be perhaps one of the most obscure forms of mixed-martial art matches today. It may be as real as conventional MMA competitions but it still is relatively unknown to most MMA followers. Longtime and hardcore MMA fans do discuss the subject of MMA tag team matches on internet forums, but there hardly is a discussion board on the internet that shows any enthusiasm on the subject.
Fans of MMA tag team competition do exist but they are greatly outnumbered by MMA fans who hate, choose to ignore or simply do not know about the existence of tag team MMA. MMA superstars do occasionally join MMA tag team competitions like UFC veteran Rich Clementi and Japanese MMA star Hayato Sakurai but their appearances on the MMA tag team matches are doing very little warm more fans to the concept.
So what does the future hold for tag team MMA?
Given its current status with MMA fans and its lack of marketability, the future doesn't seem to bode well for tag team MMA. However, the UFC and the sport of MMA itself weren't given much of a chance in the past and yet they have endured and are now widely accepted. Will tag team MMA then have a similar future? Only time will tell.
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